Month: September 2011

Today is a festival which everyone in my family and yes, many, many others enjoy too – it is Vinayaka Chavithi or Ganesh Chaturthi. Whatever you may call it in your language, it is a celebration for one of the cutest Gods in Hindu mythology. One of the primary components of this festival is to celebrate it along with my Dad’s birthday. This is an element that makes it even more fun for us.

Staying so far away from home, one misses these festivals even more. But, we did manage to re-create some of the festivities here. We performed the puja and I dished out some of the goodies, but what mom makes back home is definitely missed.

It got me thinking of how monotonous and routine oriented life has become. The festivals and the preparations along with it are more of a strain for someone who has to keep up with working routine. This is more the case for us living away from home. May be along with all the modernization, social networking, keeping in touch and so on and so forth, the routine and fast paced existence is but obvious.

There are days when I like to re-live those precious moments in my childhood in Doon, where I had many lazy afternoons to spend. No TV to sit in front of, beautiful town with lovely trees all along for lovely cycle rides and long sessions of badminton or carroms or craft making. I am sure each one of us have our own memories of beautiful, peaceful childhood where rush hour was not a part of our lives and neither our parents’. A lot has changed in the last 2 decades and my daughter’s childhood would be quite different – in fact it is with laptops and smart phones.

There are no complaints for any of it – but festivals do make one nostalgic and tad philosophical.